The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-05-19

speed, docility and beauty. Without
grass and clover, they could not have
these. What are we waiting 0 !?
Have we not all their grasses, and
more ? The corn plant atta1ns no
greater perfection than here. The
sorghums and millets under our South
ern sun make their richest feed. Ihe
clover grows as to the manor-born.
Bermuda grass, the johnson grass,
the Lucern-with all these plants at
our door, and the more %luxuriant the
farther South we go with them. Why
should we buy hay at the North or i n
England, Or anywhere else? Have
we not here, agriculturally, the basis
of the grandest industry in the world -?
Have we not as great a combination
of advantages here as anywhere ? Our
land is not at fault !; our climate is
in our favor. We do not suffer from
those ftful extremes characteristic of
that on the great plains west of the
Mississippi. There sometimes in sum-
mer the whitening sirocco ruins all
the farmers crops in it's path, and in
winter the blizzard rising beyond u
most Northern bounds bears down
upon those vast t~reeless plains with
extremes of cold and smothering
SHOWS, bringing suffering and death
to man and beast, reaching even to
the shores of our sunny gulf, where
with spent force it dies out in chilling
frost. Every winter come to us re-
ports of narrowing suffering and fear
full mortality. among the cattle on
those ranges-scarcity of feed and
extremes of cold. In some places 25
per cent, and some even as high as
so per cent, are the reported losses.
Years ago it was recognized by the
experiments of intelligent observers
that the prairies would not afford per-
manent and profitable pastures for
either sheep or cattle. The history of
our own natural meadows is theirs
they will run out. The great cattle
trails Of the West are rapidly having
their day. The cultivated grasses and
fodder plants must be our reliance.
Even now, probably, they make and
finish up the greater bulk Of the beef
and mutton annually marketed in our
country. It is not too much to say
hat even here in our own section, ere
long, as fine beeves and muttons will
be made as anywhere in our Union.
When the cultivation Of grass and
clover shall enter into our rotation as
persistently as that of cotton, corr and
wheat-when cotton shall be reduced
in acreage and intensified in culture
the product Of the season increased,
the quality improved, when hard by
the cotton field will be found as many,
or more, acres in grass and clover,
and on which are constantly feeding
beautiful focks and sleek herds, and
the moving machine ringing the hay
makers glee, then as Birmingham is
now sweeping by in rapid strides to a
supremacy in the great iron industry
of our country, so may we, with a
like energy and enterprise applied to
the various branches of our calling,
expect from as great or greater seas
ons, to attain to a like supremacy in
the great agricultural industry of our
country. Then will cereals, our
hay, or dairy and meat products,
and fruits successfully compete in
the markets of the world. Then,
farmers, let us plant the grass, plant
the clover, make the meadow and the
pasture, plant the orchard, plant the
vineyard, study and labor while we
may, teach our children the practical
arts of life, the skilled brain, the
skilled eye and hand, our daughters to
mind the dairy, u son to guide the
pillow.